Grains of Sand

Pizabay Remember...His reputation. What's in a name? I have four names. Lynda Lee Schultz Bloedow. The last, my mother's maiden name, never really made much difference until I lived in Colombia and Venezuela where it was vital on official documents. The trouble was that its pronunciation sounds like a popular swear word in Spanish! Not good! Schultz was basically impossible to pronounce at all. Lee was easy and Lynda or Linda is a Spanish word, but not one usually used as a name so I got some odd looks when I introduced myself. Some people thought I was vain since "linda" means "pretty" or "lovely." Names mean something. And no one is more jealous of His Name than God. His reputation hangs on what people think when they hear His Name. And what people think when they think "God" depends on what the people who claim to be His followers are like. They are His representatives, His ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). In Ezekiel 36, God...

Reading: Daniel 7-9; Revelation 4 The bulk of the book of Daniel involves a series of visions and encounters with God that Daniel had during his time in Babylon. Here is one of the most beautiful ones. “ As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing coming out from before him. Thousands and thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened ” (Daniel 7:9, 10, NIV). This vision of Daniel is reminiscent of sections of Revelation that describe God and the final judgment (Revelation 1:13-16; 20:11-14). Daniel’s vision continues: “ In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds or heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He wa...

Reading: Ezekiel 33-36 As is our nature, we believe that just about everything is all about us. To some extent that is true. Take, for example, this Biblical truth: Jesus died for our sins. Absolutely! That truth is certainly about us. Anyone who has had much experience with the church has memorized these famous lines: “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life ” (John 3:16, NV). God loves. He gives. He saves. That’s about us. But there is another factor here that comes into play. Behind the loving, the giving, the saving, is the glory of God. When the cycle of sin began in the Garden of Eden, God’s reputation was damaged. It wasn’t that He couldn’t have kept His Creation on the “straight and narrow.” He chose to give man the right to choose. But giving man that right to choose has always been viewed as a weakness in God. If He is God, He NEEDS to make people do what HE wants them to d...